Finally Together
by Matt3928th
Summary: Axton is feeling depressed about things he did in the past and tries to do something stupid. Can Maya save the man she's come to love? Rated for some language, brief nudity and dark themes.


**Finally Together**

Axton sat at in the booth, looking at the empty pitchers he drank by himself. He was kinda drunk but coherent enough to still know what he was doing. "Maybe I shoul go home." he slurred slightly. He stood up and walked over to where Moxxi was. "I'm gonna go. I wanna sheep... sleep." he corrected himself. "Ok Sugar. Don't drive or operate heavy machinery." Moxxi cheerfully said to him. "I'll make sure he gets home ok." Maya said as she walked over to him. "I'm fine. I can walk by myself." he told her before tripping, only to be caught by Maya. "Right. Maybe you should come with me." he said. "Good idea." she replied. A few minutes later, they were back at his apartment. "C'mon cowboy. Time for bed." she said as she held his arm over her shoulder to support him. "Thanks. My room is in..."In the back and to the right. I remember. You let me crash here before." Maya reminded her drunk friend. "Oh. Right." Maya pushed Axton's bedroom door open with her foot and led him in. She laid him on the bed and pulled his boots off. "It's late, so I'm gonna stay here tonight, ok?" "Uh-huh." he barely responded, clearly drifting off. "Goodnight." she said as she turned the light off. As she got to the door, she stopped and smiled at him, a slight blush gracing her features.

The next morning Axton woke up feeling like a cement truck parked between his ears. Groaning because he had yet another hangover (the 14th that month), he got out of bed and staggered to his kitchen. "Morning, sunshine." Maya smiled at him before sipping from the mug she filled with coffee. "How're you feeling?" Before he could answer, Axton's eyes bulged and he ran full speed to the bathroom. Maya heard what was happening to him quite clearly. "Well, guess that answers that question." she said to herself. Now hangover free, Axton made his way back to the kitchen. "Thanks for looking out for me last night." "That's what friends are for, right?" she smiled sweetly at him. "You're the best." he said as he poured himself some coffee. "Can I ask you something?" she said after taking a sip. "Sure, go ahead." he said turning to her. "How come we never got together, Axton?" she asked, her blue eyebrows curling upwards. Axton broke eye contact with her and stared into his coffee. "You're one hell of a teammate. A great medic. An insanely gorgeous woman and my best friend. But I never asked you out because I feel like I don't deserve to be with you." he admitted. Confused, she asked "Don't deserve to be with me? How?" Axton sighed heavily before he continued. "I drink. I gamble. I hit on Moxxi." "Who doesn't?" Maya chimed in. Axton shot his eyes to her, very surprised by what she just said. "...uh, other than me?" she asked. Axton lowered his eyes and continued. "But the biggest thing stopping me is that really stupid thing I tried to do a few months ago..."

**FLASHBACK**

Two weeks after Handsome Jack was beaten and Sanctuary was still celebrating. The Vault Hunters were all at Moxxi's. Zer0 was reciting victory hiakus, Gaige was trying to keep up with Moxxi who was drinking her under the table. Kreige and Salvador were screaming about conducting poop-trains and 'shitphony' orchestras back and forth. Lilith was sitting with Mordecai and Brick, remembering all the good times with Roland. Maya was watching everyone get drunk from her booth, smiling at everything going on. And then there was Axton. He sat alone, nursing his beer, feeling gloomy. But why? Handsome Jack was dead. Hyperion was stopped and Pandora itself was saved. Then why the guilt? Why the despair? Why was the self hatred that he kept deep down clawing its way out now? As he sorted through his thoughts, he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. He looked over to the hands' owner and saw Maya giving him a concerned look. "You ok?" she asked him. He looked at her for a few seconds, admiring her. It was no secret she was gorgeous. No secret at all that he really enjoyed her company. Maybe had a small crush on her too. But he would never admit it. "I'm fine." he said. "Just a little tired." "Axton, I know when you're lying. What's wrong?" she asked as she tilted her head to him. "Eh. Nothing I really wanna talk about right now. Think I'm just gonna go home. call it a night." "You sure?" Maya asked him as he stood up. "Yeah. I'm sure." "Alright, I'll see you later." she said as she hugged him. "C'ya guys." he said loudly to everyone else in the bar. Not waiting for a response, he left the bar and headed back to his apartment.

A couple days later, Axton went to the Marcus Munitions, looking to buy a revolver. "Of all the guns I sold you before, this is the first time I've ever sold you a revolver, my friend." Marcus said as he put the money Axton gave him into the register. "And the first time I've seen you with facial hair." he said pointing to Axton's slightly more than a 5 o'clock shadow of a beard. "Something different." Axton said on both accounts. As he walked out of the store, he heard Marcus say his almost trademarked 'If you shop anywhere else, I'll have you killed'. Walking back to his place, he literally bumped into Salvador. "Dude, what's up amigo?" Sal asked him, a big stupid grin plastered on his face. "Just buying a gun."Axton replied. "Cool. Just so you know, they're gonna be doing work on the New-U station, so you might wanna update your id on it bro." the dwarf told him. "Work on it huh? Thanks." he said as he headed to the New-U station. "Any time bro." Salvador called to him. At the New-U station, Axton placed his palm on the screen, instantly getting identified. 'Greetings user. Please select an option.' the computerized voice said. The options were- Update id, Fast Travel, View Death Records and Delete Profile. Looking around to make sure nobody was nearby, Axton pressed the Delete Profile option. 'You have selected DELETE PROFILE. Is this correct?' With a press of the confirm button, his ability to respawn if he should die was no more. "Hey Axton." Maya said as she came up behind him. "Hey." "What's up?" she asked. "Nothing really. Just updating my profile since I hear its' gonna have work done." "Yeah, me too. Is that a revolver?" she asked pointing at his new gun. "Yeah. I had nothing better to do, so I figured I'd get one." "Oh. Hey, I was wondering, later on would you wanna-" "POOP-TRAIN!" Kreige shouted loudly, looking so proud of himself. Maya and Axton looked at him. "I'm the conductor." he announced. "Right. I'm gonna go now. Axton said as he turned to leave. "Ok." Maya said, almost to herself as she watched him leave. She had grown quite fond of him. Hell, she was in love with the man. But fate seemed to conspire against her whenever she tried to tell him how she felt. "Poop-train, Maya. Poop-train." Kreige said, reminding her he was there.

Back at his apartment, Axton locked the door and bolted it. He sat in his chair and pulled out a picture of him and his fellow vault hunters. The only one he had of Maya. In the picture, him and Maya stood next to each other, his arm around her waist and her arm around his neck, giving a thumbs up. Gaige sat sideways in Deathtrap's arms. Salvador was holding a gun like a guitar. Kreige was facing the wrong way and Zer0 just stood there. He smiled at the picture before sliding the revolver into his lap and thumbing back the hammer.  
At HQ, Tannis and Gaige were looking at the records of use from the New-U station. "This data is amazing. I didn't know you died so much!" Tannis gleefully said to the younger woman. "Bite me." Gaige told her. Tannis looked over and literally bit Gaige on the hand. "OW! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!" Gaige demanded. "What can I say? I'm a literalist." Tannis smiled. "What are you two doing?" Maya asked when she saw the pair huddled over the computer. "We're looking at death records. Wow Maya, you died 13 times." Gaige said. Maya frowned and growled slightly. "Zer0 died 36 times. Salvador-18. Me... well that's not important." "86 times!" Tannis chimed in. "I said it's not important!" Gaige yelled before carrying on. "Axton died 15 times and Kreige died 9,486 times." Maya stood there baffled. "Let me see that!" she said pushing Gaige out of the way. Gaige wasn't kidding. Kreige's death record said 9,486 times since January. And it was only March!

Axton put the picture down and placed the barrel of the revolver under his chin. Soon, all his shame from failures, mistakes, his ex-wife leaving him, being dishonorably discharged, friends lost and misdeeds done would be no more and death would be his.

"Hey, what;s that?" Maya pointed to one entry from a few minutes prior that day. "Oh. it says Axton deleted his profile. Why would he do that?" Gaige asked turning up towards the Siren. A bad feeling settled in the blue haired woman's stomach. And then it hit her. Axton bought a gun right before she saw him! She immediately ran for the door.

Taking a deep breath, Axton closed his eyes, thought of his friends, especially Maya one last time and pulled the trigger.  
Maya quickened her pace and ran full speed to where Axton's apartment was. No matter what, she wasn't gonna lose the man she loved.  
That sound. That horrible sound. That was all he heard. A click. A deafening click. And then silence. Axton slowly opened his eyes and looked at the gun. Shit. He was in such a hurry to die that he forgot to load it. Slowly it dawned on him what he tried to do. Fuck! He just tried to kill himself! Horrified by his actions, he threw the gun to the floor.  
Maya finally reached Axton's apartment. she tried the knob but it was locked. "Axton? AXTON!" she screamed, banging her fist on the door. Out of options, she raised her leg and kicked the door in. Axton turned his head and looked at her, shame and sadness all over his face. She stormed over to him. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU TRY TO DO? WHAT DID YOU DO?!" she screamed as she grabbed him by the collar. "You dumb son of a bitch, do you have any idea what you just put me through!" her voice cracked as tears rolled down her face. "You asshole! she said before she ran out of his apartment sobbing. Axton sat there for a moment before he hanged his head, defeated. It was three weeks before Maya went anywhere near him again. Double that before she talked to him. But time passed and slowly but surely, she forgave him and they went back to being close.  
** End Flashback**

Axton couldn't look at her. Months had gone by but he still felt shame. Maya took their mugs and set them aside before hugging him, her head resting on his shoulder, her arms wrapped around the back of his neck. "I forgive you Axton." she said, her voice muffled by his shoulder. "I'm so sorry I didn't ask you why. I..." "There's nothing to forgive. You had every right to be angry with me. I'll never deserve to be with you." he sadly stated. "You do deserve to be wit me. More than anyone." she said stroking his slight beard. She looked deep into his eyes and kissed him. He kissed her back and before either knew it, they were on his bed. She realized she was topless when she felt his hand run up and down her bare back. He pushed a small blue lock out of her eye and smiled. "We finally got together, Maya." "I love you Axton." she said. As they leaned in to kiss, Kreige's voice from outside yelled "Poop-train!". Axton and Maya looked at the window, then back at each other. "Poop-train." Axton said. "Poop-train." Maya repeated before they kissed again.


End file.
